


Into the Breadverse

by CeramicAvocado, dreamingcait



Category: Persona 5, Persona 5 Royal
Genre: Akechi Goro Lives, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Chatlogs, Chatting & Messaging, Crack, Crack Treated Seriously, Fluff, Fluff and Crack, Gen, Hijinks & Shenanigans, Humor, M/M, MISHIMA GORO RIVALRY, Metaverse (Persona 5), Morgana but he's bread now, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Persona 5: The Royal Spoilers, Phantom Thief Mishima Yuuki, Post-Canon, alternate universe where morgana is a bread cat yes yes >:3c, did we write a persona fanfiction about bread? yes we did !!, technically
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-21
Updated: 2020-12-21
Packaged: 2021-03-11 02:20:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,746
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28207479
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CeramicAvocado/pseuds/CeramicAvocado, https://archiveofourown.org/users/dreamingcait/pseuds/dreamingcait
Summary: bread.
Relationships: Akechi Goro & Mishima Yuuki, Akechi Goro/Amamiya Ren, Akechi Goro/Kurusu Akira, Akechi Goro/Persona 5 Protagonist, Kitagawa Yusuke & Sakamoto Ryuji, Kitagawa Yusuke & Sakura Futaba, Sakamoto Ryuji & Sakura Futaba, The Goro Akechi Mishima Yuuki Rivalry
Comments: 1
Kudos: 11





	Into the Breadverse

**Author's Note:**

> HI HELLO HI THANKS FOR CLICKING ON THIS BREAD FIC. I PROMISE ALL WILL BE EXPLAINED. sit back, relax and enjoy the ride B) 
> 
> from your dear friends ceramicavocado and dreamingcait <3

February was almost over and with that the cold weather was somewhat dwindling down to a more subtle chill. It would soon fade away entirely for the warming air of Spring. Tokyo would soon show signs of Spring’s touch, the cascading trees situated in nature strips blooming to life with variants of pink and white. At the moment winter was still in full force. Snow falling down in soft clumps and settling on anything that was remotely out in the open. 

Akira himself became one of those things as he emerged from the underground into Shibuya’s central street. He had to regularly dust the large amounts that would settle in his hair before it had the chance to melt. There was movement from his bag and a loud groan as he went to shake the snow away yet again. 

“What are you doing out there?! I’m getting vertigo from all this tumbling!” The annoyed voice was from his friend and fellow Phantom Thief Morgana. Akira had first met him in his first and unintentional visit to the metaverse in which himself and Ryuji had found themselves lost in Kamoshida’s palace. With the help of Morgana, they were able to escape back to the real world. Only after their second trip did Morgana truly join them and assist in stealing Kamoshida’s corrupt heart. 

“Bread can’t get vertigo.” He said matter of factly, continuing his same motion. The bread in his bag groaned in disapproval at his words. Yep, his companion that helps him fight inside the metaverse and is a constant roadblock in his night owl tendencies was a piece of bread. A talking piece of bread at that. Thus Morgana was therefore dubbed Breadgana. 

“I’m definitely feeling something,” Breadgana made that annoying noise again, the plastic packaging he was giving an ear splitting crinkling sound as he rolled around the bag. “Can’t you just walk like a normal person? What’s with the sudden bursts of movement?” 

“Snow.” He said shortly, giving one last shake to make sure there were no stragglers of snow clinging to him. “It gets stuck in my hair a lot.” 

“Just leave it, don’t put me through this torture.” Akira frowned at the bag, even though he knew Breadgana couldn’t see him. At least the intent was there. 

“You don’t know what it’s like having cold water drip down your head slowly. It’s winter, it’s cold.” He gave a resigned sigh as he saw white fall right over the clump of hair over his forehead. He was fighting a losing battle and he knew it. 

“You don’t know what it’s like getting thrown around in a bag by a brute.” Akira felt the urge to make the ride to the Shibuya crossing as bumpy as he could just to spite Breadgana, but the nicer part of his brain stomped on that idea before he could act on it. 

“Fine I get it, come out of the bag if you want then. We’re nearly there.” He said, bending his arms awkwardly to reach the zip of the bag and sliding it open a couple of centimetres to allow Breadgana to pop out if he so desired. There was a lot of crinkling for a couple of seconds before Breadgana did just that, head coming to meet his shoulder. There would inevitably be crumbs he would have to brush off later. 

“Wow, you didn’t do a good job at getting the snow off, there’s a lot back here.” Breadgana supplied unhelpfully, “you gave me vertigo for nothing.” He meowed right in his ear. 

“It wasn’t vertigo.”

“You don’t know that.” The bread retorted. Akira rolled his eyes and continued walking. Another battle he would lose. The bread was far too relentless. 

“Hey so what’s the point of having us all gather here?” He asked the bread propped up on his shoulder. 

“Just something I sensed, I’ll go into detail when we see the others.” Although Breadgana had been particularly cryptic about what he wanted everyone to meet for, but Akira knew that whatever it was must be important. The last time Breadgana had sensed something it had been Yaldabaoth’s influence in mementos. It must have something to do with the metaverse, but how could it? Maruki had been their last battle. The metaverse was gone. Wasn’t it? 

  
  


Akira felt a buzz in his pocket as he walked into the underground walkway. He squinted down at the phone and wiped a couple snowflakes off. It was Ryuji. 

“Hello.” Akira greeted as he threw the phone up to his ear. 

“Yo Akira!” He nodded, there was a rustling of clothing as Akira was sure Ryuji was attempting to get into the warmest possible position he could whilst holding the phone up. 

“Where aaaare you?!,” Futaba pouted from the background, obviously leaning into Ryuji. “We’re all freezing half to death waiting for you guys to show.” She groaned, though the phrase was playful enough that he could tell she was at least half joking. 

“Sorry about that, my mode of transportation is kind of unreliable.” Breadgana leaned into the phone, leaving a mountain of crumbs in his wake. Akira had a retort on the tip of his tongue ready to say back to Breadgana, but he held it. He was more interested in hearing why Breadgana had had them meet. 

“Yes, yes, let’s all blame Akira. Now since we have everyone here why don’t you tell us what’s going on?” Akira groaned instead, allowing a touch of sass to slip into his words. Breadgana cleared his throat with an awful crunching noise. 

“I would’ve waited till we’re in person but this is fine. There’s something going on in the metaverse again, something big.” 

“How can you be sure?” Yusuke asked, sounding farther away. 

“It’s hard to explain… but it’s the same feeling I had last year. Mementos has been destroyed, but I feel like this is something similar.” 

Akira could hear Goro’s curiosity from there from the small croon in the background.

“By similar to mementos do you mean it’s the result of the collective public’s cognition?” Breadgana hummed in agreement.

“Yeah, precisely.”

“Well why don’t we try the nav out, try to guess some keywords.” He could hear Ryuji rubbing his gloveless hands together eagerly. “If Breadgana’s right and the metaverse is back so should the nav.” 

Akira obliged, putting his friends on speaker phone and searching his home screen for the nav. He scanned the screen and finally stopped to stare at a small app he had never seen before in his life. The app had a similar look to the nav yet there was a distinct difference. The red eye he was accustomed to had been juxtaposed right on top of a slab of what looked to be bread. 

“Uh…” He suddenly stopped walking and clicked on the small app. Sure enough he was taken to the navigation screen. 

“What’s wrong?” Goro asked, voice approaching the phone. Akira backed out of the app and took a screenshot to send to Goro. He could feel Goro’s stare through his silence. He was sure that an accusing eye he would have thrown at Breadgana if they had been in the vicinity. 

“Hey don’t leave us hanging over here what's going on?!” Futaba voiced quickly in a staccato rhythm. Goro’s digitised sigh rang through the phone speaker. 

“The nav’s changed display again, as it did in Maruki’s reality.” 

“That’s quite troubling, so the influence must be large enough for the nav to be altered.” Yusuke frowned, “that aside shall we begin trying keywords?” Akira replied with a quick “mhm” and went back into the app. 

“The masses.”

**Hit**

“Well it’s a hit, alright.” Goro scoffed, “I guess Breadgana was right on the money. So what should we try for next, a distortion or a location?”

“Let’s go to the location next,” Futaba hummed in thought, “It has to be somewhere pretty big if it’s formed from the masses' cognition.” 

“Yeah, like maybe it’ll be like Kaneshiro and be all of Shibuya again.” Ryuji shrugged, blowing hot air onto his hands. 

**Hit**

“Wait for real?! That worked?!” Ryuji gasped, and Akira could hear him rustling towards Goro. Goro’s silence could only indicate a glare being reproachfully directed at Ryuji, but he didn’t make a further comment. 

“Alright so all we need now is a distortion.” Breadgana’s voice rose in trepidation. 

“Shibuya and the masses… what would the masses view Shibuya as?” Yusuke voiced distantly. He fell into a stumped silence soon after. 

“How about an airport?” Ryuji provided. 

**Result not found**

“Going by the nav icon change, might I suggest a supermarket?” Goro tried. 

**Result not found**

“What does the icon appear as now?” Yusuke asked in interest. 

“It’s bread themed.” Akira said, feeling Breadgana shuffle slightly on his shoulder. At least Breadgana was aware that this must have something to do with him. 

“Uh… so why don’t we go with that theme, the supermarket was good, but maybe it’s more specific.” Futaba said quickly to fill the silence, “so maybe it’s a Costco?”

**Result not found**

“Safeway, Aldi, Coles…”

**Result not found**

“Shit, maybe we’re on the wrong track afterall.” Ryuji cursed. Akira laughed,

“What about a Walmart?” He joked. 

**Result found**

“NO WAY DID THAT ACTUALLY WORK?!” Ryuji burst out so loudly Akira flinched, turning off speaker mode in a flash. Luckily there weren’t too many people on the streets at this time so only a couple of heads turned. He returned the phone to his ear and Breadgana tilted to listen in. 

“That’s- the public thinks of Shibuya as a Walmart?!” Futaba said with a gasp. 

“Consumerism maybe?” Goro guessed. 

Akira Kurusu made his way towards Shibuya Crossing. The snow fell lightly upon Akira’s face, cheeks red and nose runny. He felt a small rustle in his bag as his bread companion hopped up to face him. 

“Are we there yet?” asked the small loaf of bread, wiggling himself out of the bag and adjusting his bag clip. 

“Not yet, Breadgana,” Akira said, picking up the pace. It was way too cold for him to be idling out in the snow. 

A couple snowflakes nestled itself into Akira’s unruly hair, wind blowing onto his face. Breadgana let out a small “mrow” followed by an ungodly amount of rustling noises, before finally hopping back into Akira’s bag. He always wondered how Breadgana was able to do that without hands. A question for another day, I guess. 

They finally made it to the square after all the distractions and the forms of Goro, Ryuji, Yusuke and Futaba came into view all situated around the snow covered garden beds. Once he had got close enough Ryuji turned and saw him.

\-----------------------------

Yuki Mishima gave out a very loud gasp as the ground he was standing on started to warp and twist. A grand gust of air and smoke from the ground arose and he had to take a step forward to regain his balance. He put his hands up to his face and covered his eyes as the wind began to die down. He let out a shiver and brought his hands to the sides of his face. He felt like he was about to tumble over as he took a cautious step back, holding onto the wall behind him and covering his mouth. 

He quickly turned around; Shibuya Square was completely barren, with everyone walking behind him reduced to nothingness. He noticed that the train station building behind him had completely merged together into one big complex of beiges and whites. It looks similar to a depot of sorts, nothing like the train station. The lights pouring out from the windows were terribly bright, yet Mishima couldn’t look away. It was like a moth to the light. 

He whipped back around at the sound of rustling. He stared straight up, looking at the grand building in front of him. He didn’t spare a second looking at the building itself before his eyes travelled to the sign. Mouth agape, he squinted as he tried to make out what was written on the big billboard. The sign said...

“Uh…” Mishima whispered aloud. And suddenly, the lights clicked in his head. 

It dawned on him. In bright neon blue and white, the sign said… 

WALMART?!

He shook his head and rested his face on his palms. He peaked over and squinted. _Are those statues…? No… No, those are…_ Mishima thought. 

_THOSE ARE PEOPLE?!_

In pure shock, he stumbled backwards, hitting his head on the brick behind him. He quickly retreated on the other side of the wall to where he was eavesdropping before. _How did he not notice?! What if they heard him?! What if they were dangerous?! No… But what if they were just as confused as he was?_ He peeked his head out and looked at them with eager eyes. Although scared stiff, he stayed put behind the wall. 

He leaned his head forward to try and catch some parts of the conversation between the curious strangers, who were even more flabbergasted. 

“You’ve got to be joking,” The feathered one said, shaking their head.

“HOLY SHIT!” A voice shouted out. _They kinda sounded like Sakamoto-kun…_ Mishima remarked. 

“Oh my god, when you said Walmart I wasn’t actually expecting it to work,” The one with the red hair said. “Nice job, Joker!” 

_Who’s Joker?_ Mishima asked the air, his eyes darting from person to person. 

“Wild guess,” The one with the flowy coat said, shrugging. Mishima could only assume that one was Joker. What a strange name… 

“Breathtaking…” The one with the tail said, lifting his arms up and holding his hands out to frame a picture. 

“Meh, it’s nothing we haven’t seen before,” The redhead said, shrugging. 

_Before…? Who even are these people?! Wait… that outfit… Could they be the Phantom Thieves?!_ Mishima’s mind raced. _This isn’t the time to panic! I need to find the truth!_

He glanced around the now parking lot and scanned the area. The big Walmart building had wide gates and was about four Shujin Academies combined. It looked like a hotel building.. Or a museum? Something grand. The neon sign displaying the words “WALMART” in grand letters shimmered in the dark. The sky was a very deep purple, with what appeared to be snowflakes falling on the ground. Mishima put out his hand and looked closely. It wasn’t snow on his hand. It was… flour? What the hell?

He glanced to his right, and saw a bunch of pickup trucks beside a large door, all labelled with Walmart’s signature on them. He felt another gust of wind move past his body. Holy crap, it’s freezing here! His eyes felt dry, he assumed due to the light, and blinked a couple times. He looked up and saw the strangers cover their faces with a mask. Dang. 

“Wait, yo, look. We’re already a danger to them?!” The one with the skull mask sounded offended. 

_A danger?_ Mishima thought. _They do look kinda scary…_

“It’s waaaay too calm out here,” The redhead sighed, scanning the area.

“It’s too quiet, no music…” The man named Joker said, tilting his head and bringing his hand up to his chin. 

“Music? Dude, you say the weirdest shit sometimes...” The one with the skull mask laughed. 

“Hey, listen! Calm’s about to end, I’m seeing some readings coming towards us quickly… There!” The one with the goggles swiped up and… A screen popped out?! Out of nowhere?! She zoomed in, and the rest of the group went over and glanced over her shoulders, covering Mishima’s view. 

He glanced over to the parking lot to watch a bunch of trucks sped towards the Walmart. He suddenly saw one emerge out of the corner of his eyes and was heading straight towards the mysterious figures at intense speeds. Mishima tried to scream out, but his throat was dry and coarse. He tried to utter words to the still standing figures, but nothing came out. He could only stand there, sweaty and panicked, as they stayed put. It was going to be too late!

“Oh. Look over there,” The one with the fox mask said calmly, pointing towards the truck literally 16 feet away from him. 

As Mishima covered his eyes to hide from their impending doom, they quickly jumped backwards and landed perfectly to the side with a little “woah!”. He let out a sigh of relief, calming his beating heart. The truck on the other hand had swerved off the road and crashed into the building with a grand thud. The back door of the truck broke open, releasing what seemed to be loaves of bread onto the road and in front of the big gates of Walmart. Way too much happened in those last 2 minutes. 

“Goddamn! That’s a shit ton of bread!” The skull masked one said. 

“I guess we can’t go that way now…” Goggles sighed. 

“Speaking of bread though, where’s Breadgana?” Joker inquired. 

_They didn’t even flinch! Who are they?!_ Mishima asked for the umpteenth time in his head. 

_Wait. What did they say? Bread… Breadgana?_

All of them glanced down to an empty spot next to the man named Joker, and simultaneously groaned. 

“Did we lose Breadgana?” The one with the fox tail tilted his head as he spoke.

“You’ve gotta be effin kiddin’ me!” The one who spoke eerily similar to Sakamoto-kun said.

“Welp. RIP Breadgana. F in chat.” The one with the weird hacker panels said, not looking up from their screen. 

“Can’t believe he’s gone.” 

“Truly tragic…” 

“Oracle, scan the area for me? Maybe he got caught out when the truck drove towards us…” Joker said with uncertainty and looked towards the one with the goggles. 

_So, that one’s Oracle…_ Mishima mentally noted. 

Oracle’s panels flew up out of nowhere, tapping away at it and scanning the area. Mishima felt his jaw drop and his heart skip a beat. He briefly saw an orange outline on the green screen. She enhanced the picture. He swore he saw a flash of blue fire come from her mask. 

She hummed in delight. “There he is!” 

As they started to move towards the pile, Mishima heard a god awful noise come out of nowhere. The only way to describe it would be a mix of glittery noises and crunching, but turned up to max volume. It kinda sounded like the crunching noises he heard in class and often scolded about, even though it wasn’t him. Oh, how he hated that noise. But only this noise was on 100x bass boost. He threw his hands up towards his ears and saw the people in front of him do the same as the shimmering noise continued to accelerate over time. He saw a glow emerge from the sea of bread. 

“HOOOOOLY SHIT!” One of them yelled, Mishima couldn’t figure out who. 

“WHERE IS THAT NOISE COMING FROM?” Joker yelled towards Oracle. 

“I THIIIINK WE NEED TO FIND BREADGANA! THIS IS THE SAME NOISE IT MAKES WHEN WE’RE NEAR A MAP OR THE TREASURE!!” Oracle screamed as loud as she could. 

“ONLY TEN TIMES WORSE,” The one with the tail said, somehow sounding calm despite yelling his lungs out. 

“SOMEONE GO FIND HIM AND SHUT HIM UP!” Scowled the one with the feathers, grasping a sword?! And he dove into the pile of bread. 

_WHERE DID HE GET THAT SWORD?!_ Mishima internally yelled. Mishima took a second glance as the feathered one stabbed the bread with his very, _very_ , sharp serrated blade. He gulped. 

Mishima didn’t know if he wanted to laugh or cry. He could only stand there, dumbfounded. There he was. Hiding from a bunch of strangers, ones who had funky costumes, large swords, magic hacker screens and who are now diving through a pile of bread. What else could happen next?

The noise started to slowly diminish as Joker and the one with the scary sword got deeper and deeper into the pit. They threw bread around and plucked it by a handful. The one with the feathers grabbed in and the noise completely stopped. He brought up the piece of bread to reveal that it was a loaf with… Cat ears?! And a tail?!

“How the fuck did you get in there?” He snarled at the bread like it was gonna talk back. 

“Crow… My saviour…” The bread-cat-thing solemnly said.

_IT… SPOKE?!_ Mishima felt faint. He could have sworn he also saw a tear fall out of the bread-cat’s eyes. 

He took a deep breath. _HOW AM I SO CALM ABOUT THIS! THERE’S LITERALLY A LOAF OF BREAD WITH CAT EARS TALKING RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME?!_

He exhaled sharply. _Okay, Yuki, focus! That one…_ He stared straight at the scary man with the blade. _Just avoid that one._

Oracle brought up her screen again and did a similar scan of the area. She hummed a small fanfare as the bar hit 100 and a green light flashed around the area. He swore he could have seen a small UFO looking thing above. She threw her hands behind her back and turned towards Joker. 

“Okay! We should be able to enteeeeerr… That way,” She pointed towards the trucks. “We go up there, and into the loading area over the wall, there’s a small room we can sneak in.” She pointed upwards and did a little semicircle with her finger mimicking them jumping in. 

_But how were they gonna do that?_ Mishima wondered. He didn’t have much time to think as Joker shouted for them to follow him, jumped, grabbed the top of the truck and swung himself over with one smooth movement. He couldn’t believe his eyes.

He looked towards the rest of the group hoping he’d find them in the same amount of confusion as he. But without a second to lose, they all followed suit, not wasting a breath. 

“How am I…” Mishima shook his head and dragged out his lower eyelids. Even this piece of bread made the jump easily. It didn’t even have _hands_.

“I guess I’m gonna have to try!” Mishima prepped himself and positioned himself into a running position.

_Just do it like they did!_ He propelled himself forward and---!

...He ran head first into the truck. 

\-----------------------------

  
  


Joker gracefully backflipped off the wall and landed on the pavement perfectly. The room he landed in wasn't awfully big, but it was awfully chilly. Joker felt a shudder go up his spine. He took a quick glance at the area and motioned for the rest of the thieves to follow. They ran past the trucks going into the garage, and into the loading bay. 

The garage was a sorry sight of grays, blues and very dull colours. It was also very dark, the room only being illuminated by the street lights behind them and Futaba’s flashlight that came with her thief costume. Not to mention the room was filled to the brim with crates. Like, lots of crates. A weird amount of crates. They shimmered and shined as if they were treasure chests in Joker’s third eye. Nothing else really peaked his interest other than the absurd chill in the loading bay. 

“Joker, look-y. There’s a treasure chest!” Oracle hummed in delight. 

“This early in the palace?” Joker questioned. 

“Check it out!” Skull cheered, already on his way to open the crate. “It’s… bread?” 

“There’s another crate here… It’s also bread.” Fox said at the next treasure chest. 

“This is why I have trust issues!” Oracle pouted, looking genuinely discontented. “Anyway, let’s go through here. We should be making our way to the main entrance soon-ish.”

Oracle pointed to the door, covered by the maze of crates. They went into the network of crates one by one, Joker at the back and Skull at the front. Which, in hindsight was a very bad idea since Skull and Fox kept stopping midway to open the sparkling crates out of habit. He turned around and heard a thud from outside. He paid it no mind. 

In the corner of his eye, he could briefly see Fox stuffing a loaf or two in his jacket. They all glimmered, but every time one of them tried to open them, it was filled with bread. The sight of their excited eyes turning to disappointment as they opened another crate of baguettes and Wonder Bread was making Joker frown. 

“Uhh, alright guys, let’s just lay off on checking the crates, shall we?” He rubbed the back of his head. 

“Aye aye, Captain,” Skull responded, dropping the top of the crate with a loud bang. 

“Idiot! What if there were enemies nearby?” Crow scolded. 

“Chillax!” 

“Let’s go!” Breadgana hopped over towards Joker. 

They continued navigating the crates. It felt never ending. They weren’t even at the main entrance yet! It was oddly suspicious without any signs of shadows nearby. The farther they went in, the dimmer got. It was so dark that Crow’s cape and mask were slowly fading into the shadows. Joker could swear he heard some rustling in the background. An extra set of feet...

“Joker! Carry me!” Breadgana complained, and Joker bent over in front of him and scooped Breadgana into his arms. 

“Crow. Can I… hang onto you?” Joker mumbled, voice full of worry. He was definitely gonna lose Crow without his third eye. He played with a strand of his hair. 

“I suppose, if it alleviates your anxiety.” He groaned. Joker could practically hear the eye roll. 

“Oracle, you should come up front with your flashlight, I’ll hold onto you.” Fox whispered behind him. 

“Ugh! Aiiight. Scaredy Inari…” She said, sounding awfully content despite her complaining. She strolled up to the front and held out her flashlight like a sword. 

Skull gripped Fox’s shoulder suddenly. “Let me hang onto you, man…” 

“HANDS OFF THOUGH, CROW!” He snapped back at Crow, who was just standing there. 

“I wasn’t planning on it.” He scoffed. 

They conga-lined across the dark hallways, occasionally bumping into each other and stepping on each other’s toes. Joker could hear Oracle hum the Featherman theme song quietly up front, and a small mumble of the lyrics from Crow. Joker smiled. It definitely helped with the unnerving silence. 

The corridor slowly got more and more narrow until they ended up having to turn sideways and slip towards the door. It was almost as cramped as the crawl spaces, only they weren’t crawling and rather were shimmying their way over to a little blue light at the end of the hall. 

It seemed like an eternity until they reached a locked door with a keypad on it. Oracle jumped into the small space and turned towards the screen. Fox tried to fit in there too, but it was just small enough to fit one Oracle. 

“Oracle, what does it say?” Joker said from the back, trying not to shift and knock over the crates. Skull wobbled backwards, pushing Joker and Crow to the side. 

“Move over!” Crow grumbled. 

“Hey, it’s a small space!” Skull retorted. 

“Uhhhh! It’s about bread. It’s like… “When was sliced bread invented…?” Oracle tilted her head.

“What!? How are we supposed to know--” Skull was quickly interrupted by Crow’s cough. 

“1928.” He said to Oracle. The screen flashed a nice green and switched to a new panel. 

“Daaamn! Okay! Didn’t know Crow was a bread expert” She scoffed. “This one says… How long do you have to leave bread to rise for it to be ready to bake?” 

“Breadgana, you’re bread, do you know?” Joker held Breadgana up. 

“What, no I don’t!” He sounded offended. 

“The hell?! You should know this!” Skull leaned over Crow and shook Breadgana, which in turn shook Joker too. Oracle snorted. 

“Everyone…” Fox began. Everyone turned to look at him, it was as if he now had a spotlight on him. 

“With the power of our determination and bread, we can overcome this triumph together! We can beat this test of wit and skill!” Fox loudly proclaimed. They could practically see the glitter in his eyes. 

“Snrk… He sounds like someone out of my shoujo magical girl animes…” Oracle leans back and whispers behind Fox. 

“I’m totally convinced he’s a magical girl.” Joker says with a small smirk. 

“Dude, I’d believe it…” Skull pouted as Fox continued to practically sparkle. Crow rolled his eyes as Fox started to giggle slowly.

“Wait… something seems off…” Joker focused. Oh. That wasn’t his imagination. Fox actually had a spotlight over him. He and Oracle slowly looked up to the light and slowly behind them to see the flaming shadow, red with fury. It advanced towards the narrow hallway. 

“G-g-guys…” Oracle stuttered, pointing behind them as Skull, Fox and Crow whipped around. Breadgana choked. 

“Ah.” Crow managed to get out. It was practically breathing over top of them. 

As if they were cats to a cucumber, they ricocheted off the ground, knocking all the crates over and filling the ground with bread. With a really loud collective shriek, they tripped over each other, climbing the walls away from the shadow, still holding onto one another. Joker felt like a domino, every time he moved he fell over or tripped over something. He felt one of his spare revival beads fall out of his pocket. Skull and Crow never stopped screaming profanities at the shadow, and Fox threw a loaf of bread at it in panic. After a bunch of dancing around each other, they hung onto the top of the big pile of crates, just a little closer to the ceiling. 

Joker whispered in panic. “How...” He shook his head as Skull continued to hold onto both Fox and Joker’s legs. Oracle hung onto Fox’s neck and Crow propelled himself upwards with his claws. Joker held onto Breadgana like he was gonna drop him. 

“Must’ve been Fox or somethin’!” Skull wiped a tear out of his eyes. 

“I wasn’t even that loud…” Fox pouted. Joker looked down towards the shadow, who decided to ignore them and walk the other way. They never finished their bread quiz… 

“You guys need to be more CAREFUL! What if you dropped me?!” Breadgana whimpered. 

“There’s a crawl space up there. This should lead us to the entrance!” Futaba smiled. 

_I wonder how the Shadows found us, though._ Joker thought again and again in his head, looking backwards. 

\-----------------------------

Mishima was definitely the reason why the Shadows found them. 

He awoke on the pavement with a splitting head and a nice little bruise on his forehead. He sat up and rested his head on his palm. How was he even gonna get up there? He shivered as he buttoned up his coat and got up. There were a couple trees around… Maybe he could climb those. He never learned how to climb trees. Maybe he could just swim through the bread and into the gates? They were so big though. 

“You know, to hell with that! I’m just gonna… I’m just gonna climb the tree.” He said to no one in particular. 

He wobbled over to the conveniently placed tree and grabbed one of the lower branches. He hauled himself up and hung from the branch, arms and legs wrapped around and he hung for dear life. He could see the truck’s top as he wiggled himself to the edge and grabbed hold of the truck. He swung himself over and hit his forehead on the metal. Barely grabbing on, he managed to get a foot over and push himself up. 

He made it to the wall, which was a good feet or two away from the ground. He gulped. One misstep and he’d fall down. He got a running start and grabbed onto the top of the wall, sliding his legs over and dropping himself on the other side. 

“FUCK!” He said as he landed straight on his feet, sending a strong shock up his legs and through his whole body. He covered his mouth quickly and brought one of his legs up and winced. Thankfully, despite the drop, nothing was broken. Probably. 

That’s when Mishima looked to his left and saw there was an easily accessible cavity where a truck was blocking it last. He was so tired already. Too much was happening. It was remarkably dark as Mishima traversed the garage, walking towards the half empty crates. He picked up a loaf of bread and took a bite to taste a super sour, stale bread. He spat it out. 

He made his way over to the crate labyrinth and squeezed his way into the little grove of the crates. He could faintly hear a couple voices in front of him and some humming coming afterwards. It was the Featherman theme… He hummed along to keep himself from going crazy. 

He whistled quietly to himself as he walked slowly towards the voices, trying his best to be as sneaky as possible. He closed his eyes and bumped into a body.  
  


Crap?! Was that them?! He panicked and looked up. This definitely wasn’t one of those strangers. The figure loomed over him, almost triple Mishima’s height. He glanced down and up and gulped. 

“Hello…?” He stammered out. 

“THIEF. GET OUT OF HERE!” The voice bellowed. Mishima’s heart skipped a beat as he stumbled back and shrieked. He bumped into a crate, and another one, and another one. He fell over and pointed straight from him, screaming and scurrying away. The giant raised his arms and brought out a giant baguette looking thing, it was way too dark to see. It swung at Mishima like he was a fly while he scuttled backwards, taking a couple loaves and aiming it into the abyss. 

“GO THE OTHER WAY!” Mishima shrieked, feeling the tears developed at the corner of his eyes. 

It grasped his baguette and lifted it up and in one smooth motion and it flinched. The giant turned around quickly and scanned the area, and Mishima took that opportunity to just book it out of there. To which the mysterious figure stopped chasing him at some point when he turned around, and started walking the other way. Mishima released a sigh of relief. 

“What the hell was that…'' He said, slowing his pace to regain his breath. He hasn’t even ran this much in one day in forever. He shook his head as he headed for the exit, planning on going in some other way. 

He turned around and---

He heard a crash. And a shriek. And bread toppling to the ground. A lot of crunching and… A lot more screaming. Oh no. Mishima sped up. 

\-----------------------------

The thieves skirted to a halt. They were now in a larger more open area that Joker would have to classify as the front of the store. There were checking aisle and registers lined up near... doors. There was a way out! Joker looked back and saw a maze of aisles snaking away into the depths of the store. They looked less than inviting, he thought nervously. 

“Is that the way out?” Skull huffed with a shake of his head, “I’m so done with this place.” 

“Suck it up Skull, and according to my readings yes that should lead us back to the car park we were in before.” Oracle swiped through the many translucent screens around her. “Wow, wait I’m also sensing a lack in distortion somewhere to our right, there may be a safe room nearby.”

“Effin’ finally!” Skull groaned loudly, dragging his feet to catch up with the group. There was a crashing sound in the distance following his words and the thieves flinched, looking over to where the sound had originated. 

“Skull, I think we’d all benefit if you’d keep shut your mouth.” Crow seethed, throwing a murderous glare over at Skull. 

“Don’t blame it on me!” Skull whisper shouted, though he grimaced guiltily. “Let’s just get out of here before whatever made that noise gets to us.”

“Agreed.” Fox nodded tiredly, raising his head and looking around. “We should find that safe room first I say so we’ve made some progress today.” Oracle hummed, 

“Let’s begin the search for the-“ Oracle broke off quickly as another burst of sound rang around the room this time in the form of a voice,

“I DON’T WANNA DIE I DON’T WANNA DIE PLEASE NOT YET IM NOT READY!” Joker swore under his breath. He knew that voice. He definitely knew that voice. 

“Wait was that-“ Skull gasped, looking quickly towards Joker. Joker returned the look and Ryuji’s gasp turned into a muffled groan, “you’ve gotta be kidding me...”

“The signals coming closer...” Oracle bit her lip, shuffling slightly in her spot. Within the next couple of moments, the form of Mishima came bounding out from one of the aisles looking absolutely beside himself with terror. When he saw them standing there all with their eyes on him a new influx of fear seemed to come crashing onto him. “Geez and I thought we had it bad in here.” Oracle muttered. 

“I mean no trouble!” Mishima shrieked, skidding to a halt and backing a few passes backwards. “Please don’t hurt me!” He pleaded, raising his hands in surrender. 

“This is pitiful.” Crow spat, looking dead at Mishima with an air that he would like nothing more than to never see him again in his life. 

“Mishima we don’t want to hurt you, it’s ok.” Joker said calmly, raising his hands too. Mishima jumped so high at that. Skull leaned into Joker his intended whisper turning into more of a shrill cry,

“What is Mishima doing here!? How the eff did he even get to the metaverse!?”

“Be quieter Skull- and he must’ve been dragged in when we used the nav!” Breadgana shook, dropping crumbs all over. 

“Damn you really sound like Sakamoto...” Mishima murmured under his breath,

“The hell!?” Skull tilted his head in exasperation, looking at Joker for help he was not going to receive. “What do we do with him?”

“He knows too much, shall I be the one to take him out?” Crow asked nonchalantly, hand itching towards his serrated saber. Akira quickly held out a hand to stop the saber from being fully unsheathed. He gave Crow a stern look which Crow returned with a knowing smirk. Mishima let out a shriek of terror. 

“Don’t do that.” 

“Does he not have a persona?” Fox questioned, observing Mishima with interest.

“It doesn’t appear so, probably doesn’t have the potential.” Oracle snorted with a laugh, “this dude is the biggest NPC around.”

“WHAT!?” Mishima cried and they all grimaced. He was so loud. 

“Ok ok enough we need to leave before this idiot draws a whole horde of shadows to us.” Crow said with finality, finally letting go of the hilt of his weapon in defeat. Joker smiled. Finally he got a victory. 

It only took them a couple of minutes searching the perimeter of the foyer area to find the safe room Oracle had outlined. They had to practically drag Mishima with them into the room with them. Once they all made it in there was a collective sigh of relief. 

“We made it.” Yusuke sighed triumphantly, “to be completely honest I wasn’t sure we would make it with this Mishima’s shenanigans.” He glowered at Mishima. 

“I... sorry sir.” Mishima hung his head 

“Yooo Inari just got called sir by the incel!” Oracle chortled, collapsing against the table in the middle of the room. The room had taken on the appearance of a break room, complete with a fridge and cabinets containing only bread. Not much variety it seemed he thought with a frown. 

“Incel...?!” He said with a scrunched expression. Oracle laughed even harder at that. 

“Hey, I know you’re having fun bullying Mishima and all, but can we please head back to the real world? The smell of bread is really gettin’ to me...” Skull slumped on the other side of the table across from Oracle. 

“I hate to agree with Skull, but he has a point.” Crow said distastefully, holding up an arm to cover his face from the smell. 

“Wait aren’t any of you going to tell me what going on?!” Mishima raised his eyebrows at the lot of them. As much as Joker wanted to tell Mishima what was going on- as he knew it was the right thing to do- he wanted to get out of here more. 

“Not right now, for now let’s get out of this place.”

**Author's Note:**

> GO FOLLOW US ON INSTA!!!! 
> 
> @ceramic_avocado
> 
> @dreaming.cait
> 
> thank you for coming with us on this magical ride !!! to be continued (wooOooOoo)


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